LIVE! The Tracing Freedom Mapping Project: Historic Black Communities in Montgomery County, MD

By Neile Whitney

St. Paul Community Church, Sugarland, Poolesville, MD. Photo by Neile Whitney

Many of us live in Montgomery County, unaware of its deep history of slavery, or of the descendants of the enslaved who endured Jim Crow and the challenges of segregation in this part of the South – because the county was, for all intents and purposes, the South. Today, thousands of the descendants of both slaveholders and enslaved still live here, and are eager to learn more of their own history.

Each of us lives around the corner from a former site of enslavement (SOE), whether it was a farm that was turned into a suburban development, the ruins of a mill that ground flour to feed the local people, or the ghost of an old tavern where enslaved people were bought and sold. Yet many of us are unaware of the historic Black communities that were in our towns, and that may still exist.

To illustrate the prevalence of slaveholders and the historic Black communities that worked their way to freedom, from Jim Crow to the modern day, MoCoLMP has created an interactive map, Tracing Freedom in Montgomery County, MD's Historic Black Communities, which shows:

• locations of about 140 historic Black communities in Montgomery County,

• locations of almost 300 enslavers during the time of the Civil War,

• the three lynching sites in the county, and

• four of the many places where the enslaved were bought and sold.

When you click the icons, you’ll see a pop-up with more information about that person or community. If we’ve found the names of the enslaved at a site of enslavement, they'll be listed in the pop-up. The historic Black community pop-ups all link to more information about the communities in that area. Four Area sections (i.e., the Bethesda area) are complete, and more are in process.

Our research teams have spent the past two years finding and mapping this information. We will continue to look for more SOE locations and to research and discover more about our historic Black communities.

Next? We will be researching the names of the historic Black community founding families and, when possible, linking them to sites of enslavement if they were in Montgomery County.

We hope you find this project interesting, and we look forward to your feedback.

Interactive map: part of the Tracing Freedom in Montgomery County, MD project

Neile is on the MoCoLMP Steering Committee and is the Mapping Project lead.